Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-04-25

can be but partially treated now: Kansas
City and st. Louis are in one State. The
former is great stock gathering and dis
tributing point. Beef and pork stock move
by rail from Western Missouri to st. Louis
at low rate, else it would be butchered in
Kansas City. This is due to water and
rail competition between Kansas City and
St. Louis. There is no statute interdict-
ing this, for the movement is all within
State; nor is there any law obstructing it
by denying the right to charge more than
the through rate for intermediate points to
which there is no competition, and the
rates to which are the value of the service,
the true and just charge for the labor and
energy exerted. That is, the laws of
commerce recognize the right of the car
rier to use his surplus capacity-which
must, to greater or less extent, develop in
all carrying business-to carry through,
as low as his competitor, without disturb
ing his right to collect the true value for
carriage to way-stations where he has no
competitor; aprinciple as old as commerce
itself. But directly opposite ST. Louis is
East St. Louis, in the State of Illinois.
However great its packing facilities, how
ever much it has invested in transportation
to bring the western plains near to the
point of the consumption of their products,
it is forbidden by the operation Of the
interstate law to receive those products at
the rate guaranteed st. Louis, the dis
tinction between them being the width
of the river that fixes the low rate. Why :?
Because Democratic measure says
Since you are in another State than that
in which you buy, railroads shall not carry
your goods except you pay them the sum
of the way rates-that is, if the railroad
companies accept from you the rate St.
Louis pays for precisely the same service,
they must not charge more, or as much, for
carriage to or from any point between Kan
sas City and st. Louis" This they cannot
do without ruin, as it would make all their
energy surplus, so to speak, and the profit
paying service would effectually be cut off.
Thus st. Louis is protected at the ex-
pense of East st. Louis, not by desire of
the rail-carriers, nor of the producers, nor
of the consumers, but by the dictation of
( or and tho nan,an,ot,o Droe.Io..3
who made its ill.judged act law. So the
citizen of Illinois is debarred of his right
as a citizen by tariff barrier erected at
his State line, which as effectually cuts
him off from trading in Missouri as if that
State were in Europe and prohibitory Gus
toms duties were laid upon imports from it.
Consumers in Illinois are forbidden the use
of products brought by rail from the West !;
the producer, by reason of the high charge,
receives less reward for such as are sent {.
the consumer pays more for such as he does
receive; so that really the only party ben
Gifted is the carrier between the two-but
this is only apparent, since the sum of
consumption is limited by the process and
the general business of transportation Grip
pied by the limitation.
Reflection will convince whoever gives
thought to the subject that this new doctrine
of protection as between States and citizens
of States of common country, which rail-
roads have been bringing closer and closer
together, and whose products they have
been making more and more easy to ex-
change regardless of distance, leads logi-
cally to disruption of these relations, and
by natural process, if adhered to, CONNER
cial dismemberment and actual estrange-
ment between States.